It’s easy to find workplace humor, especially if you’ve got customers,
clients, patients or anyone breathing that you interact with on a
regular basis.

Starting a humor file and collecting words of wisdom from your outside
contacts is a simple way of increasing your humor quotient, just keep
it in the spirit of laughing WITH them, and not AT them.

An organization of bill collectors, for example, gives out a prize for
the best “excuse” they’ve heard from clients. Past winners have
included excuses such as: “My cat was sick” or “My best friend was
bitten by a rattlesnake” or “I’ll slap a paternity lawsuit on you if
you don’t stop bugging me.”

When I worked as a park ranger, I collected silly questions from park
visitors, (over 500 are featured in my best selling book, “When Do You
let the Animals Out?”, available at all fine book stores – a great
Christmas gift by the way) such as:

Are all people as Canadian as you?

At what elevation does an elk become a moose?

How do the elk know to cross at the elk crossing signs?

How high are you?

How high am I?

Where am I going? Where did I just come from?

When you are being chased by a bear, is it true that you have to climb
a tree that’s the same width as your head?

I eventually managed to herd up close to 1,500 such questions. So
start your own collection, because no matter what business you’re in,
people really do say some wacky things to keep us smiling.
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2. Mike’s Fun at Work Tip

Weren’t you listening in item number #1? Start a file specifically
for those strange comments, quotes, or questions that your customers
share with you. You can tie it into a contest for the best wacky
question, comment or complaint of the month, or add a section to your
regular staff meetings where folks get to share their latest in-bound
blooper comments.
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3. Quote of the Week

“Humour is merely tragedy standing on its head with its pants torn!”
Irvin S. Cobb
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4. It’s a Wacky, Wacky World Squirrel Terrorizes Town!

A squirrel has been terrorizing” a town in northern England, according
to a Times of London article.

Kids are staying inside, people are locking their doors at night, and
numerous folks have even been attacked by the furry little guy. One
town member was reported to have said: “I’ll never trust squirrels again!”

It seems like everyone is going a little nutty these days.
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Copyright Michael Kerr, 2002

Michael Kerr, “The Workplace Energizer” is the author of 5 books,
including When Do You Let the Animals Out? and You Can’t Be Serious!
Putting Humor to Work. Michael delivers keynote talks and workshops
on humor in the workplace, business creativity and public speaking
skills.